Obama Trying to Renew Patriot Act on the Sly

‘Tis the season to slip unpopular legislation over on the American people.

“With key sections of the U.S. Patriot Act set to expire Dec. 31, the Obama administration – essentially tiptoeing through the corridors of Congress and using the raucous health care debate as cover – has quietly maneuvered for renewal of the controversial provisions, which he opposed as a senator.

“Perhaps the most contentious measure is the business records provision, also known as the library provision, which allows the government to seek a court order forcing private entities such as banks, hospitals, and libraries to hand over “any tangible thing” – from library circulation records to medical records – officials think is relevant in a terrorist investigation.”

Read more at The Lakeland Times.

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U.S. Invasion Killed More than 1 Million Iraqis

The corporate press in the U.S. simply doesn’t care that the Iraqi fatality rate borders on genocide. The neocons and fake conservatives will say that the U.S. probably should have killed more.

“Among the most important corporate media censored news stories of the past decade, one must be that over one million people have died because of the United States military invasion and occupation of Iraq.  This, of course, does not include the number of deaths from the first Gulf War nor the ensuing sanctions placed upon the country of Iraq that, combined, caused close to an additional one million Iraqi deaths. In the Iraq War, which began in March of 2003, over a million people have died violently primarily from US bombings and neighborhood patrols.  These were deaths in excess of the normal civilian death rate under the prior government.  Among US military leaders and policy elites, the issue of counting the dead was dismissed before the Iraqi invasion even began.  In an interview with reporters in late March of 2002 US General Tommy Franks stated, “You know we don’t do body counts.” Fortunately, for those concerned about humanitarian costs of war and empire, others do.”

Read more at Truthout.org.

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Ten Ways to Screw with Those Who’ve Screwed with You

I almost wish my mortgage were underwater just so I could have the satisfaction of walking away from it. Click through the link to read the ten suggestions for screwing with those who’ve screwed with you.

“The New Year is nearly here, and so much has happened. Wait, what’s that? Nothing major at all has happened, you say? Oh right, we’ve been stuck in neutral since dumping the toxic trash of the Republican Bush administration and embracing Democratic promises of hope and change, neither of which have blossomed.

“A year of our collective life has flown by and our global culture is still rife with schemers, screw jobs and sorry excuses for solutions. And we just sit back and take it, year after year. But no more. When you make that hefty list of New Year’s resolutions, drop some of these bombs. Then duck. You’ll get your change faster than you can say, ‘Teabag this!’”

Read more at AlterNet.org.

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The People of Post-Industrial Detroit Look to the Land

Look to Detroit if you want to know what a post-industrial American city looks like. It’s a little reminiscent of post-imperial Rome as portrayed in this painting by 19th Century English painter JMW Turner.

In Detroit, nearly all the manufacturing has moved away, so the people are returning to the land. There’s very little private capital remaining for the parasites at the city, county, state, and federal levels to seize. The bones of the urban carcass are pretty much picked clean.

“Reporting from Detroit – On the city’s east side, where auto workers once assembled cars by the millions, nature is taking back the land.

“Cottonwood trees grow through the collapsed roofs of homes stripped clean for scrap metal. Wild grasses carpet the rusty shells of empty factories, now home to pheasants and wild turkeys.

“This green veil is proof of how far this city has fallen from its industrial heyday and, to a small group of investors, a clear sign. Detroit, they say, needs to get back to what it was before Henry Ford moved to town: farmland.”

Read more at The Los Angeles Times.

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